Hi Everyone, I've been lurking on this forum for a while and just signed up today. But in January I started the 52 week challenge. I printed out my sheet and started each Thursday saving as much as possible into a separate savings account. I also discovered Mint.com on this forum and I set the challenge as a Goal within Mint which helps keep me going.

So far I'm only up to $84. I had a lot of expenses the past 4 weeks but I hope to get back to the higher numbers next week!

Thanks for the encouraging words! Thursday is saving day and today there were a lot of bills but I saved $16 so that makes $100. Doesn't sound like much but I have all year and haven't missed a week yet. Hopefully next week I can cross a higher number off my sheet!

This week saving was tough because I'm paying off my credit cards. I was only able to save $5 for a total of $105. The good news is I got a big paycheck and paid off a credit card balance and it's now zero. This will free up $100 per month, but it left me with only $5 in my budget to save.

This week $24 saved. Since 2-3 weeks of the month I have lots of overtime I drew a line through the boxes at the bottom of my 52 week sheet so 1-24 are low overtime weeks and 25-52 are high overtime weeks.

I moved the $131 balance from my big cheap bank to an online money market bank account with higher interest. That way it's not as easily accessible if my checking account gets low. I chose the money market vs. regular online savings so I can write a check in an emergency instead of waiting 2-3 days for an online transfer. I don't care if the money market account rate is a tiny bit lower it's still WAY higher than my big cheap bank.

I've been trying to educate myself on the best way to break the consumer debt cycle. Reading Dave Ramsey and I'm following the steps. He says to save $1000 fast, and I simply cannot wait for the 52 week challenge to be over before I get intense with the rest of my credit cards. Since January I've been able to slash $650 of monthly expenses to attack the credit cards with. I also put my 401K contributions on hold until they're paid off. That money gets diverted to the credit cards too.

My 52 week challenge will continue but I'm going to get that $1000 together in the next 4-5 weeks. I will start paying myself first from EVERY little bit of money that comes in. I get direct deposits from various side projects 2-3 days a week besides my day job. So from this last $200 one that came in Tuesday I saved the bonus $19.

Once I have the mini $1000 emergency fund saved I will turn my focus to the rest of the credit cards but continue with the 52 week challenge at the same time.

This week I made 2 bonus deposits from other sources of income besides my day job. When the account balance hits Dave Ramsey's $1K mini emergency fund amount I will stop the bonus deposits, continue the 52 week challenge but redirect that bonus money to the credit card balances.